The present invention relates generally to street cleaning devices and, more specifically, to a device for picking up leaves and other debris from along streets and roads.
In many municipalities, leaf burning has been banned, and leaves must be collected by street crews in the fall. In a typical situation, property owners deposit leaves in large piles of varying sizes adjacent the street curb. Thereafter, the street crews use one of numerous methods to remove the leaves from the street. Present methods (including sweeping, vacuuming, baling, bagging and loading with front end loaders) are slow, expensive and labor and equipment intensive. Rain and snow present problems especially when attempts are made to vacuum wet material. At low temperatures, the vacuum tubes clog with ice because of the low pressure-high velocity air through the system. Baling and bagging require special handling, and, as with most common methods, large crews are necessary to keep up with the autumn disposal of leaves. Many of the presently used methods tend to block large areas of the roadway during the cleanup operation.